You Can Download North Korea's OS X Knockoff for Desktops (But Don't)

An anonymous lover of the esoteric cryptocurrency Dogecoinrecently uploaded a torrent that appears to contain the delightful Mac OS X knockoff built by North Korea. While it's not news that the DPRK created its own a Linux-based operating system that looks just like OS X, it's pretty funny that you can now play with what looks like a copy of it.

The software is called Red Star 3.0. Quick disclaimer, though: You probably don't want to install North Korea's operating system on your computer. The download is 2.5 gigabytes, and the software's origins remain unclear. The hackers that uploaded the torrentsay they've been "pulling data out of DPRK's ass since 2014!" They also asked for donations in the form of Dogecoin. Proceed with caution.

When setting up Red Star 3.0, you'll be prompted to set a time zone and hear a popular North Korean folk song when the system boots up. Once inside, you have access to slightly bastardised versions of the same programs that come with OS X as well as some games and some very North Korean wallpapers. This one's called "Snow at the Baskol Outpost:"

Will Scott, an American graduate student who taught computer science in Pyongyang for two consecutive falls, explained to the Chaos Computer Congress that North Koreans usually use Windows XP. Scott explains that Red Star is made by the Korean Computing Centre (KCC) which is one of the large labs in the capital. "My guy feeling here," he says, "is that it gets used more for industrial automation, contracting things." He added, "For end-user computers, it was all basically Windows XP, a little bit of Windows 7."